She is among 175 North American scholars, artists and scientists chosen from more than 3,100 applicants. She is one of 10 poetry fellows this year.

Awarded by the John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation, the fellowship recipients are selected based on "prior achievement and exceptional promise."

As a Guggenheim fellow during the 2015-16 academic year, Pugh will work on a book-in-progress titled “Stardust Media,” a collection of reflective poems that follow a poetic speaker through encounters with various technologies – both ancient and contemporary.

Her previous honors include the Ruth Lilly Poetry Fellowship from Poetry magazine, the Lucille Medwick Memorial Award from the Poetry Society of America, an individual artist fellowship in poetry from the Illinois Arts Council, the Associated Writing Programs’ Intro Journals Award, the Grolier Poetry Prize, and residencies at Ragdale, Ucross, and the Virginia Center for the Creative Arts.

Pugh is the author of three books of poems: "Grains of the Voice," "Restoration" and "Rotary," which won the Word Press First Book Prize. Her fourth book of poetry, "Perception," is scheduled to be published in 2017.

Pugh, who joined LAS in 2005, teaches in the highly-ranked Program for Writers, the university's master's and doctoral program in creative writing. She has received awards for teaching and graduate student mentoring, in addition to a 2007-08 faculty fellowship at UIC's Institute for the Humanities.

Pugh earned a Ph.D. in comparative literature from Harvard, where she was awarded a Whiting Foundation dissertation fellowship.